Fijian family freed from detention

Sarah Stephen, Sydney

On April 22, Sereana Naikelekele and her three young children were released from Villawood detention centre on a bridging visa, after spending almost three years behind razor wire.

The Federal Court had decided a week earlier that two of Sereana's Australian-born children, four-year-old Lomani and six-year-old Mereani, were not entitled to citizenship. Her three other children are all Australian citizens, but to date the immigration minister has rejected all appeals for Sereana to be able to stay in Australia.

While Sereana's situation is far from resolved — the bridging visa has been granted for two months until their case is finalised — there was a handwritten note on her bridging visa that said: "The minister is personally considering the applicant's request for intervention under s417." Section 417 of the Migration Act allows the immigration minister to grant a visa on humanitarian grounds.

Green Left Weekly first reported Sereana's struggle to be released from detention and stay in Australia in October and November last year. Since then, both Australian and Fijian newspapers have followed her story.

Sereana came to Australia as a teenager and has lived here for 17 years. She married and had five children, and when her visa expired she wanted to continue to live here. In July 2002 she was dobbed in and taken to Villawood detention centre, still breastfeeding her youngest child Glen.

Sereana's lawyer Michaela Byers is preparing a High Court appeal to challenge the Federal Court's finding that Mereani and Lomani are "aliens".

From Green Left Weekly, May 4, 2005.

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From GLW issue 625